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Cost: The concert is free. The first 400 fans to buy “Miss Movin' On” at the Barnes and Noble at The Shops at La Cantera will receive a wristband that allows access to the autograph signing. Fifth Harmony will only be signing copies of “Miss Movin' On.”

Less than a year ago, San Antonio's Ally Brooke was walking around The Shops at La Cantera, picking out clothes like any other teen.

On Friday, she'll return to the mall — this time as its star attraction. Brooke, now 20, is scheduled to sing there with her girl group Fifth Harmony, which finished third on “The X Factor” last season. The free concert starts at 4 p.m.

Brooke characterized this particular stop on the group's 21-city tour as a dream come true.

“I can't tell you how excited I am to be performing in San Antonio,” she said in a recent phone chat. “It's such a big dream of mine to be singing in front of my friends and family in my hometown.”

Making the setting even more special?

“My mom and I shopped for my 'X Factor' outfits at La Cantera,” she said. “We went to Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters. I live really close to the mall, so I'd always go there to shop.”

The petite San Antonio native, who was born Ally Brooke Hernandez and attended Cornerstone Christian elementary school before getting her high school education through home-schooling, described the last several months as “a whirlwind.”

“It's been so much fun,” she said of Fifth Harmony's recent national TV appearances on the Disney Channel during “Teen Beach Movie” and on NBC's “Today” show. “Oh my God. I got to shake Matt Lauer's hand.”

Currently, there's the group's mall tour — through cities that include Chicago, New York and Boston. After that, they'll return to Los Angeles to rehearse for another tour with U.K. artist Cher Lloyd.

The five girls have grown even closer through all this, Brooke said.

“Before every show we pray together, and after, we talk and have fun and laugh,” she said. “We make sure to keep each other sane and happy.”

It all started in Austin last year, when Brooke auditioned for “The X Factor's” second season. She became an early favorite of the judging panel — Simon Cowell, L.A. Reid, Britney Spears and Demi Lovato. However, when it came time to whittle the contestants to 24, the S.A. vocalist was eliminated.

Deciding that she and four other female singers who hadn't made the cut had too much talent to waste, Cowell then did what he'd done before in Britain with the guys who became pop sensation One Direction. He brought the girls back and assembled them into a group; they eventually were named Fifth Harmony. Initially the underdogs of the competition, the group made it all the way to the finals.

After the show wrapped in December, Fifth Harmony was signed by Cowell's Syco Music and Reid's Epic Records. They plan to release their first album in the fall. There is no lead vocalist, Brooke said: “All of us sing, all are equal, all bring something different to the group.”

Cowell continues to monitor their progress and give them advice.

“Simon surprised us at a studio a month ago,” she said. “We discussed the album, and he told us the song list he really loved. He told us he's very proud of us and excited for our future. He's such a huge music mogul; the fact that he believes in us so much means a lot.”

Just last week, at a TV press session for the third season of “The X Factor,” Cowell described his protégées' upcoming album as “fantastic,” and predicted: “They're going to go to Top 10 in week one.”

Though Lovato didn't mentor Fifth Harmony on “X Factor,” she also has been highly supportive since the show ended.

“Individually, each one of them is ridiculously talented,” Lovato said at the Fox session.

The music video for “Miss Movin' On” gave her chills, she added. Her prediction: Fifth Harmony is going to be “so huge.”